architecture for travellers

Beirut: Centrale Restaurant (Lebanon)

This great restaurant and bar design by Bernard Khoury has been inserted into the shell of a 1920s heritage residential building. To do this, an external structural skeleton was attached to the building and the interior walls and floors were removed. The crumbling exterior skin was left unrenovated and acts as a contextual counterpoint to the 3-storey high slick interior. At the top of the building a new steel barrel roof was constructed with a 17m long bar inside. A number of sections of the roof open, creating a wonderful rooftop atmosphere opening in the evenings to the sights and night air of the surrounding district.